Friday, October 2, 2009

Church Building Update

One of the primary reasons that I started a blog and am on Facebook is because it was recommended by the Building Committe of our church. The idea is that I will be able to update the congregation and anyone else who is interested regarding the progress of our new building.

On Thursday night the Building Committee met. Since our last meeting we have discovered that the bank believes that our current property probably does have quite a bit of equity based on location and size- that is good for us. We also discovered that the bank will only loan us what they believe that we can afford. The extra income which has been given to the building fund this year should help the bank believe that we can afford a reasonable sized loan. We also discovered that the bank doesn't think that we need to worry about the loan until we are deep into the permit process.

We have intended to help the congregation track the progress of the money that has been given to the building fund through a "thermometer" type chart. The chart has already been designed. It just needs to be filled in and posted in the church and on the internet. We hope to have that chart posted this month. We also intend to add a page to the church web site. That page will include the plans for the building and current progress, etc.

We received an update on the money given to the building fund. Those numbers will be included in the bulletin soon. I was encouraged that about $21,000 has been given since we began to raise money earlier this year (around March or April). I was also encouraged that we already have $47,000 in the building fund and that we have pledges for more.

Probably the greatest challenge we faced this month was the estimate for the site work. The costs for the parking lot and drainage are considerably more than we had hoped that they would be. The solution that we have proposed is to design the project with two phases. The first phase would include the building itself, but only a gravel driveway. The second phase of the project would include the paving and draining, as well as possibly including some of the other things that we would like (solar panels for example).

The next steps are to investigate the possibility of doing the project in the two proposed phases. While we will not be able to get a definite answer, we should be able to learn how acceptable it is generally in our township. Next, we need to send some money to the architect and site engineer. They will work together to make a proposal that we will take to the township for our permits. Since the permit process might take a while, it is important that we begin the process as soon as possible.

Please pray with us that we would follow God's plans and that our proposals would be favorably received by our township officials.